Abstract: The block set mechanism is employed to analyze the pull-out characteristics of strip anchor plates in sand. An application to upper bound analyses of vertically loaded strip anchor plates is given first to illustrate the utility and effectiveness of the proposed method. Detailed comparisons with results obtained from other upper-bound limit analysis methods, limit equilibrium methods and model tests are included. It is shown that the accuracy of solutions obtained from the proposed mechanism is higher than that from the multi-rigid-block mechanism and finite element limit analysis methods. Then the analyses are extended into the characteristics of failure surface for strip anchor plates in sand. The shapes of failure surface under different soil friction angles and embedment ratios (H/B) are studied.